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Nokia shifting to Linux as it joins with Apple to challenge Windows 2

Who's riding on whose coat-tails?

Series 60

Conversely, as Nokia licenses Series 60 to other device makers – including LG, Lenovo, Panasonic, Siemens / BenQ and, for the browser, Samsung - it could be angling for a future iPod incorporating cellular links and its software platform, which would be a major lure to Series 60 for consumer focused developers. However, while a Nokia iPhone would be a significant boost to its portfolio, in the longer term, the enhancements that Apple could bring to Series 60 are more important to the broader strategy of creating a de facto standard software platform for mobility – something that will give Nokia far greater influence on the future of the market than mere handset volumes, as well as improved margins, the Finnish company believes.

The new Series 60 browser will use the same components as Apple’s Safari browser for the Mac ranges and will be powered by the same open source technology, KHTML and KJS – key elements of the open source Konqueror browser, of which Safari is a commercial implementation. It will use the WebCore and JavaScriptCore currently used in Safari and will also incorporate mobile specific functions from the current Series 60 browser, such as small screen rendering and keypad shortcuts.

Within the open source community, Nokia will bring this mobility expertise to bear on future releases of Safari. An important aspect of the new browser will be enhanced support for customization of applications by developers. All the major mobile software platforms are evolving to support the demand by operators that their interfaces and applications should be able to be easily customized, to aid differentiation.

The rise of Nokia Linux

Longer term, the browser development shows an increasing tendency for Nokia to include Linux technologies in its thinking – the open source version of Safari is part of the KDE user interface environment for Linux, which could conceivably be melded with elements of Series 60 to create a mobilized version. Until recently, Nokia was firmly behind the SymbianOS operating system, in which it holds the largest stake, as the only smart phone platform and the basis of its challenge to Windows in the mobile world.

But last month it announced its first non-cellular device for many years, a Wi-Fi/internet tablet running Linux, as an enterprise oriented hybrid between the notebook and the mobile. It announced full commitment to Linux and availability of its patents to the open source community, and the adoption of the open source browser – with Apple’s help – is another step in this direction, and one that would appeal to its key partner in the enterprise, Linux backer IBM.

Importantly, the operating system is becoming less important in the handset wars than the real differentiator, the user interface layer that controls the delivery and appearance of applications and allows for customization of the device by the operator, developer or even end user. Outside of Windows Mobile, the Java programming language is increasingly providing a common layer that spans different OSs – including the proprietary, cut-down ones that still run most phones. This means that, while Nokia once saw control of the OS as vital to its plans, SymbianOS may now be less important than Series 60 and Java, frameworks that could be migrated to Linux and other OSes.

It is not clear whether the implementation of Safari will become standard across Nokia handsets. It also offers the Opera browser on some models, and two years ago took an early open source interest when it invested in the Mozilla Foundation’s Minimo project to create a phone-based browser. Minimo will release a browser this summer, but it will initially be just for Microsoft Windows CE.

Nokia has also created an application that turns the mobile phone into a web server, in effect, allowing users can create personal pages on their phones complete with text and graphics and exchange these with other phones. The Nokia Sensor application uses Bluetooth to exchange pages and share files. When users download the app, called Sensor, they are given templates to build their own personal pages.

Whatever individual products Nokia decides to back within Series 60 and its consumer oriented stablemate, Series 40, its challenge is to enable the mobile platform to handle data and web access as effectively as the notebook, as data prepares to overtake voice as the primary driver of mobile traffic within three years.

The mobile software platform that best supports browing, data access and web services applications will have a strong advantage in the race to become the successor to Windows as the business client OS of choice in the next decade. Windows itself has all kinds of advantages in this race, but is lumbered with a user interface that, while it has the benefit of familiarity, is certainly not optimized for mobile platforms yet.

Nokia’s Series 60 is mobile specific but has lacked the enterprise developer base and the close integration with server and desktop platforms that Visual .Net boasts. Using Linux, enhanced web access technologies and Java could start to close the gap, and Apple could ride on Nokia’s coat tails to regain a long lost position in the mainstream client device market.

Copyright © 2005, Wireless Watch

Wireless Watch is published by Rethink Research, a London-based IT publishing and consulting firm. This weekly newsletter delivers in-depth analysis and market research of mobile and wireless for business. Subscription details are here.

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